This thread makes me think of a French cartoon series I saw somewhere. Ernest Le Vampire. The protag is an ill-fortuned vampire whose nightly escapades invariably go awry. At the end of each episode, he wakes up in his coffin, much relieved to be there.

Apart from a running joke like that, I frankly can't see how the device can be anything but an insult to the reader.

As has been pointed out, dream sequences within a story have been used by many authors to a fine effect. An epistemological uncertainty about the entire story ("was this real? And what does real mean anyhow?") has been used well, too.

But when it comes to waving away the whole story with "it was just a dream", it is as good as saying to the reader "lalala, I just wasted your time."

I might add, though, that unlike 3113, I like the Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. I think the thing with that story (like with most successful dream sequences) is that the ending isn't really a surprise. There are clues throughout the story that something is off, that we've entered an odd, alternative, oneiric, or what have you realm, and we read the story with that in mind. The ending gives us an answer as to what was off, but not, I think, a cancellation of the whole story.

I've used fantasies and dreams before, but usually just for more sexual scenes than anything plot-related. If you turn too much of your story into a dream, you risk having readers feel that the whole story was pointless. I prefer to use it to insert something that I find interesting and want tow rite about, but might be out-of-character or not fit into the story well.

Okay, let me tell you what my idea was, maybe then people can assess it on its merits and give me their honest opinion.

The problem is that I am just finishing off a four-part story and I haven't quite decided how I'm going to end it yet. There is one ending that people (especially the strokers) will actually want and then there is another possible ending that will actually make sense. Conversely the ending that makes sense will badly disappoint people who insist on a HEA ending, but the happy ending won't really make much sense from a reality or character development point of view. I have been trying to think of a 'middle ground' kind of ending, but my attempts so far have been unsuccessful.

But I do have this one idea. I could write the story with the 'happy' ending, but then after the final climatic (literally) scene, I would cut to a short epilogue where the main character/narrator switches to the present tense and explains how the story didn't actually end that way and briefly describes what really happened (the realistic ending). The idea would be that the strokers would get to 'finish off' as it were, but the true ending would still be realistic and the story would maintain some kind of integrity. Of course, the sappy romantics might hate it even more when their HEA is snatched away from them at the 11th hour, which is part of the trade-off.

Okay, let me tell you what my idea was, maybe then people can assess it on its merits and give me their honest opinion.

The problem is that I am just finishing off a four-part story and I haven't quite decided how I'm going to end it yet. There is one ending that people (especially the strokers) will actually want and then there is another possible ending that will actually make sense. Conversely the ending that makes sense will badly disappoint people who insist on a HEA ending, but the happy ending won't really make much sense from a reality or character development point of view. I have been trying to think of a 'middle ground' kind of ending, but my attempts so far have been unsuccessful.

But I do have this one idea. I could write the story with the 'happy' ending, but then after the final climatic (literally) scene, I would cut to a short epilogue where the main character/narrator switches to the present tense and explains how the story didn't actually end that way and briefly describes what really happened (the realistic ending). The idea would be that the strokers would get to 'finish off' as it were, but the true ending would still be realistic and the story would maintain some kind of integrity. Of course, the sappy romantics might hate it even more when their HEA is snatched away from them at the 11th hour, which is part of the trade-off.

Opinions?

I wouldn't change my story to appeal to one camp or the other. Unless you've dropped clues earlier in the story that the main character is delusional, writing two endings and telling the reader that the first didn't really happen is just hedging your bet and failing to take a stand. Make a choice, and stick with it.

This reminds me, in a way, of a story I recently read that drove me crazy. Chapter one was brilliantly executed Non-con/Reluctance, one of the best I ever read. But then the author couldn't make up his mind which way to go with it, so he polled his readers and then wrote two parallel tracks, one with the woman in control, and one with the man in control. I quit reading. There's nothing wrong with conceiving alternate versions, but when it comes to execution, do them separately.

I certainly see your point, but I wouldn't really be creating two alternative endings as such. The male protagonist is the storyteller all the way through and the 'true' ending would be quite painful for him so it is natural that if he was telling the story to someone else he might change it a bit. Then he would just have a change of heart and admit the truth to the reader, that the last scene didn't actually happen like that.

It's a risky game to play with the reader to be sure, they could feel betrayed at the deception. That's why I created this thread and even now I am still undecided.